Just in time for Memorial Day, the Freestone County Historical Museum has finally received documents, photographs, and a Purple Heart Medal belonging to Mr. Clarence ‘Buddy’ Emmons, a Fairfield native.

Mr. Emmons, born August 28, 1921 to Beatrice and Jack Emmons, served his country as a member of the Army during World War II.

He was killed in action in France on July 13, 1944, just one month shy of his 23rd birthday.

Right before joining the Army, he married his sweetheart, Miss Dora Strickland (pictured at left with Buddy and his Father); but he was shipped overseas shortly thereafter.

Mr. Emmons, as many other fallen soldiers at that time, was interred in the Unites States Military Cemetery in Blosville, France.

Following a long, drawn out process involving lots of paperwork and back-and-forth correspondences, the Emmons family was able to have Mr. Emmons’s remains transferred back to the States and reinterred in the Fairfield Cemetery alongside his Emmons family members.

His brother, Marion Franklin Emmons, who also served in the Army during World War II, kept all of Clarence’s keepsakes and passed them on to his son, Charles Emmons, when he passed in 2004.

Charles and his wife, Neta, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, contacted the Freestone County Museum in August of 2016 about getting the memorabilia submitted for display in the family’s hometown.

The packaged was shipped off before the end of August, but never arrived at the museum.

In mid-May, Museum Curator, Patricia Pratt, received a phone call from the Fed-Ex Warehouse in Fort Worth regarding a package that had been found and offered to send the package via US Postal Service overnight.

The package was finally received at the Museum; and they are working diligently to get the documents and photographs properly preserved for display.

Unfortunately, one important item was never recovered in the shipping chaos. That item is the U.S. Flag that was draped on Clarence’s casket at his funeral.

Items up for viewing at the museum include his Purple Heart Medal and Certification, Death Notification Letter signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, several photographs including his military photo, letters written to his mother while in service, and a tear-jerking poem written by his mother following his death.

Be sure to stop by the Freestone County Historical Museum to check out this new display honoring one of Fairfield’s own heroes who is finally home where he belongs!

Happy Memorial Day!